Another Life
by ExplainingTheIndescribable
Summary: Twisted canon. Prompt: It's not what it seems. Andromeda forced Bella into safety promising to join her, only to betray her and take her place the first night Voldemort was defeated. Years later Bella's dark mark vanishes and she can return. Looking for answers she finds them, but still not all is as it seems. Some H/A. Eventual Bellamione.
1. Chapter 1

A/N Disclaimer: I still don't own the rights to anything Harry Potter-y. Purely for entertainment.

Bellatrix was still lounging on the beach chair. She practically lived there, there was no point in having a whole cabin just a few yards away. It was just another lazy afternoon on her private secret beach. The ocean breeze disturbing the small dunes of white sand that had nestled their way along the coastline as far as the eye could see.

Flitty brought her another chocolate martini. It had been their routine since the second day they arrived twelve years ago for Flitty to bring her a vodka raspberry milkshake every day, but Bellatrix had recently decided to branch out. She thanked Flitty and lifted her sunglasses, placing them on top of her head as she sat up. Before she had taken a single sip her arm tingled with an almighty electric shock and she dropped the glass. Cradling her arm she looked down and rubbed her forearm in disbelief. Her dark mark was gone.

A/N Vodka raspberry milkshake recipe:

Two scoops of raspberry ripple (half melted) for every shot of vodka. White chocolate sprinkles on top is highly recommended.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N No romantic Blackcest intentional, just plain old sisterly caring

Bellatrix immediately got up and started pacing. The dark mark hadn't vanished when the Dark Lord had disappeared the first time. So what, he must really be gone this time? Bellatrix scoffed, that was highly unlikely. She stopped suddenly, that would mean she could go home… She could see her sisters again.

Memories of her last night as the Dark Lord's second in command overwhelmed her with all the force of a tidal wave.

"_You have to go" Andromeda shoved her sister towards the door "Now, before he comes back"_

_Bellatrix tried to stand her ground pushing back weakly, exhausted from all the fighting. Why did they always have to fight… "He will come back for me."_

"_Bella" tears fell freely down Andromeda's face, she couldn't lose another person she loved. "Please..." Ted was already dead, the first target of the so-called Dark Lord on this new tirade. What made it worse, was that it had been his reward for Bella. Little did he know, that although Bellatrix loved Tom, she also loved her family even though she had to keep their contact secret for so many years. _

"_He will come" Bellatrix was still struggling against her sister's helpful hand, "Join us" Her eye lit up, maybe they could have it all… be reunited! "I will talk to the Dark Lord, yes… I will make him see that you never loved the mudblood, that you're no blood traitor!" _

_Andromeda hung her head, and stopped fighting for a moment. She pulled her sister into a fierce hug, putting into it all the things she was too proud and too stubborn to say._

"_He will lose" It was barely a whisper._

_Bellatrix recoiled but still held Andromeda, albeit at arms length. Capturing her sister's gaze, she pleaded silently for her to listen. Once the Dark Lord killed the boy, he would be invincible, she needed her sister to join him now, she needed to keep her sister this time and most importantly she needed to keep her baby sister Andromeda alive._

_Bellatrix didn't understand. Andromeda made a terrible split second decision._

"_Yes" _

"_Yes?!" Bellatrix knew her sister better than to think she had given up so easily "what's the catch?"_

"_Make the Unbreakable Vow with me"_

_Bellatrix's face would have been comical, eyes wide and mouth agape, if not for the severity of the situation and the smudged tear lines that streaked down her otherwise grubby face. _

A/N The Bella/Tom thing is not really a plot point, (and there will most definitely be nothing explicit) never fear Bellamione shippers!


	3. Chapter 3

"_On what terms?" There wasn't time to argue, and Bellatrix would do anything she could to save her sister._

"_If the Dark Lord succeeds, and kills the boy, I'll join you. I'll make up a very good excuse for marrying Ted, and explain away being a blood traitor. I'll take the dark mark if He will have me."_

_Dromeda knew it was desperate, and that it would never work; she only needed Bella to think it might._

"_And if" Bella paused, heavily implying that this was not likely to happen "he fails?"_

"_Join me. Join me on an island somewhere far, far away from here. Flitty will take care of us and we will want for nothing. Come away with me from this horrid place, and we can be rid of this insane tirade that has taken up so much of our lives already." _

_Andromeda's eye told another story, but Bellatrix was too caught up in indecision to notice. _

_Seeing her still undecided, Andromeda played her trump card "We can be free. Hell, we can even take Narcissa… the Three Witcheteers, against the world!"_

_When they had been younger, before the blood-purity mantra had encroached upon their souls, they had persuaded Flitty to get them a muggle book. After near having a heart attack at having to indirectly disobey the Black patriarch, but having to serve the young girls, Flitty had secreted a copy of the Three Musketeers into the house. Reading the book as a bedtime story to her younger sisters, four year old Narcissa had quickly decided that the Black sisters were a much better trio of Musketeers. Since then, it had been the Three Witcheteers. Andy had laughed at the time, but somehow the name had stuck. _

_Bellatrix snapped her fingers, and Flitty appeared. Bella kept her sister's gaze as she grasped her forearm "Flitty, I need you get Narcissa right now." Flitty popped off "She needs to act as Bonder for an Unbreakable Vow." Bella whispered, she would do everything she could to make sure Andromeda survived after the Dark Lord killed the baby boy._


	4. Chapter 4

Shaking off the nightmarish reverie Bellatrix returned to pacing. It could be a trap, she reasoned, and if someone more powerful than the one who had given her that mark was in power… well it didn't bare thinking about. She ordered Flitty to get her a copy of the Daily Prophet. She needed intel before she returned, a lot could happen in fifteen years.

By the time Flitty returned, Bellatrix had paced herself into a trench of sand. Climbing out and snatching the paper, the headline read "Dark One defeated, Golden Trio: Victorious!"

Running to the cabin she flung open the rarely used wardrobe and quickly put on her old black dress, and found her worn leather boots. Now there was only one thing missing. Where had she put it? She tried to think like her paranoid self of so many years ago. Ah yes. Kneeling so she could reach under the bed, she tapped the floorboards until she hit the hollow sounding one. Prising the board off, she took out the key and turned back towards the wardrobe. Counting three steps south of the wardrobe and exactly one step west, she muttered _Revelio_, and cracks started appearing in the ceiling above her. Jumping up on the bed to reach, she leaned across placing the key in the lock, turned it gently and pulled down the hatch that lead to the hidden loft. She had been overly paranoid, and also a lot fitter. She huffed a little as she finally managed to do what felt like acrobatics to clamber into the gap without the help of steps.

After several moments of moving various things, she found the box she was looking for. It was large and wooden, decorated with an intricate marble pattern swirling around each of the outside walls, creating fine detailed runes hidden among patterns weaved to be distracting. The box reacted to it's owner's touch, and the safeguards fell away. Which was lucky really, Bella wasn't in the mood to deal with the tiny immortal fire breathing dragons that would fight off any stranger's attempted intrusion.

Inside the box were a few keepsakes, pictures of her family, some other precious things and the item she was looking for; her wand. Delicately picking up the straight piece of walnut wood, she smiled. Although she had needed to keep it safe, now that she was holding it again she felt like herself again. The smile turned into a fully blown smirk, she felt powerful.

Moving everything back into place and conjuring stairs to walk back into her living quarters in a more dignified manner, she didn't even spare a glance at the life she was leaving behind. Taking a few moments to give a few quick orders to Flitty, she disapparated on the spot.

Bellatrix Black was back.

A/N Did anyone notice the canon discrepancy?

*whisper* it's for a reason…


	5. Chapter 5

A/N Thank you again for your support peeps, it really is motivational!

Within hours Voldemort had not returned, but news had come that he would never grace Malfoy Manor's fireplace again.

Andromeda had seen the anger twisting itself across Bella's face, and dragged her into a side-along apparition to Godric's hollow. Subdued flames still half-heartedly licked at various buildings along the street, they were all that remained of the blazing inferno the Dark Lord usually instigated at the forefront of the attacks.

The dark mark hung in the air, but even in her crazed state of denial Bella could feel something wasn't as it should be. Catching the faint sound of a flying motorbike, a bloodcurdling scream ripped itself from Bella's throat in that instant as she realised how badly things had gone wrong.

Andromeda gave her a moment to seeth, before touching her sister's arm gently. "Bella, we have to go."

Bella turned her furious gaze upon her sister. "How did you know? No one could have guessed he would not succeed..."Bella looked about ready to rip her sister's throat out.

"There was a second part of the prophecy." Whether she was scared or not, Andy simply remained standing with her hand gently upon her big sister's arm.

Bella turned to the heavens on her knees and howled her grief for all to hear; her love and her future were both gone up in smoke in one fell swoop. She crumpled just for a moment, and allowed Andromeda to apparate them both to Black Manor. Bags were waiting already packed in the foyer for the two witches. Bella faintly heard Andy giving Flitty orders, and was taken with the elf to the beach cabin that would protect them for the forseeable future.

It wasn't until Bellatrix awoke the next morning that she realised Andromeda nor her bag were anywhere to be found. Bella starting laughing sourly at the betrayal, one more to add to the list she sighed, why was she even surprised any more.

Back at Black Manor, Andromeda had just finished the permanent hair alteration charm that would remove the only thing that prevented her from looking like her older sister. Quickly changing into one of Bella's old corset dresses and hoping she wouldn't mind, Andy was ready. She had been planning this since Ted had died trying to get the second part of the prophecy and committed when heard it and realised Bella was in fatally serious trouble.

Bellatrix had spent her childhood taking the brunt of the anger their parents had bestowed upon their children, and it was time to return the favour. Andromeda had had a good life, she had loved and been loved in return with a child to show for it. Now it was Bella's chance for something beyond the shell of a life she had survived with so far.

With that happy thought and Bella safely taken by Flitty, Andy went back to Malfoy Manor one last time.

Rodolphus stormed in "We caught two Aurors" He caught sight of what he thought was his wife and smiled wickedly "Bella, would help me ask them a few questions?"

It wasn't truly a request.


End file.
